French Open: Pironkova stuns Radwanska

June 1, 2016

Paris, Jun 1: Fans were left wet and miserable at a soggy Roland Garros on Tuesday -- but not as drenched or depressed as Agnieszka Radwanska after the world number two's French Open hopes fizzled out following a monumental meltdown against Tsvetana Pironkova.

PironkovaLeading her Bulgarian rival 6-2, 3-0 when rain halted play on Sunday, Radwanska appeared to have one foot in the quarterfinals.

However, when the fourth-round tussle resumed more than 40 hours later following Monday's washout, the Polish second seed seemed all at sea as the players were forced to play through misty rain.

She lost 10 games in a row as she fell to a 2-6, 6-3, 6-3 defeat by an opponent ranked 100 places below her.

While Radwanska became the highest-ranked player to exit this year's French Open tournament, her defeat also meant that at least five of the top eight women's seeds failed to make their allotted quarterfinal positions.

Tough conditions

Radwanska, playing with a full-sleeved white top over her sleeveless pink dress, struggled to handle the heavy conditions and the sodden balls on Court Suzanne Lenglen and lost six games in a row to surrender the second set with a forehand error.

A further two hour 45 minute rain disruption failed to improve Radwanska's mood or her fortunes as she fell 4-0 behind in the third set.

The 27-year-old, who called on the trainer to get treatment on her right hand midway through the decider, eventually halted Pironkova's run by breaking the Bulgarian in the fifth game.

But Radwanska could not avoid the embarrassment of being beaten by a player ranked outside the top 100 for the first time in more than seven years when she netted a forehand on Pironkova's second match point.

A match that lasted just two hours and 12 minutes on court finally finished at 4.18 pm local time on Monday, almost 46 hours after it had started on Sunday.

Meanwhile, world number one Novak Djokovic and holder Serena Williams remain stranded in the fourth round.

Djokovic was 3-6, 6-4, 4-1 up against Roberto Bautista Agut in their fourth-round match.

The Serbian top seed lost the opening set to the 14th-seeded Spaniard on Court Philippe Chatrier when play was halted at 12:47 pm local time for the first time.

After an interruption lasting two hours and 45 minutes, the players resumed and Djokovic wasted no time in regaining the lead, only for the match to be stopped again.

Holders Serena Williams and Stan Wawrinka and British second seed Andy Murray, who takes on local favourite Richard Gasquet in the quarterfinals, did not even get a chance to get on court.

Results (pre-fix denotes seeding): Women: Tsvetana Pironkova (Bul) bt 2-Agnieszka Radwanska (Pol) 2-6, 6-3, 6-3; 21-Samantha Stosur (Aus) bt 6-Simona Halep (Rom) 7-6(0), 6-3.

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Agencies
May 9,2020

Tokyo, May 9: As the world continues to grapple with coronavirus pandemic, the organisers of Tokyo Game Show have cancelled 2020 showpiece event.

TGS 2020 was slated to be played from September 24 to September 27 at the Makuhari Messe convention center. However, there now talks going on for holding an online event instead.

According to the Verge, this is the first time that TGS has ever been cancelled since it started in 1996.

TGS 2020 gained more attention because of its status as the last major trade show before the launch of the upcoming next-gen consoles, the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5.

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Agencies
April 14,2020

Tokyo, Apr 14: Tokyo organizers said Tuesday they have no B Plan in the event the Olympics need to be postponed again because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Masa Takaya, the spokesman for the Tokyo Olympics, said organizers are proceeding under the assumption the Olympics will open on July 23, 2021. The Paralympics follow on Aug. 24.

Those dates were set last month by the International Olympic Committee and Japanese officials after the coronavirus pandemic made it clear the Olympics could not be held as scheduled this summer.

We are working toward the new goal, Takaya said, speaking in English on a teleconference call with journalists.

We don't have a B Plan. The severity of the pandemic and the death toll has raised questions if it will even be feasible to hold the Olympics in just over 15 months. Several Japanese journalists raised the question on the call.

All I can tell you today is that the new games' dates for both the Olympic and Paralympic Games have been just set up, Takaya said.

In that respect, Tokyo 2020 and all concerned parties now are doing their very best effort to deliver the games next year." IOC President Thomas Bach was asked about the possibility of a postponement in an interview published in the German newspaper Die Welt on Sunday.

He did not answer the question directly, but said later that Japanese organizers and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe indicated they could not manage a postponement beyond next summer at the lastest.

The Olympics draw 11,000 athletes and 4,400 Paralympic athletes and large support staffs from 206 national Olympic committees.

There are also questions about frozen travel, rebooking hotels, cramming fans into stadiums and arenas, securing venues, and the massive costs of rescheduling, which is estimated in Japan at 2 billion- 6 billion.

Tokyo 2020 CEO Toshiro Muto addressed the issue in a news conference on Friday. He is likely to be asked about it again on Thursday when local organizers and the IOC hold a teleconferene with media in Japan.

The other major question is the cost of the delay; how much will it be, and who pays? Bach said in the Sunday interview that the IOC would incur several hundred million dollars in added costs. Under the so-called Host City Agreement, Japan is liable for the vast majority of the expenses.

This is impossible to say for now, Takaya, the spokesman said.

It is not very easy to estimate the exact amount of the games' additional costs, which have been impacted by the postponement."

Tokyo says it's spending 12.6 billion to organize the Olympics. But a Japanese government audit published last year says the costs are twice that much. Of the total spending, 5.6 billion in private money. The rest is from Japanese governments.

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News Network
March 7,2020

Melbourne, Mar 7: Ahead of the Women's T20 World Cup against Australia, India spinner Poonam Yadav said that skipper Harmanpreet Kaur has given her a lot of support.

"Harmanpreet has been of immense support. When I got hit for a six in the first over, she came to me and said, 'Poonam, you're one of the most experienced players in the team, and we expect better of you'," Poonam said.

The 28-year-old experienced bowler has played 68 shortest format games for India and taken 94 wickets at an average of 22.66.

She has been in devastating form throughout the tournament and has bagged nine wickets so far.

"So, that kind of stirred something within me. I told myself if my captain has that much faith in me, I should be able to make a comeback," she said.

"I took a wicket in the very next ball, and didn't look back since. Now when I look back at that moment, it means so much in the context of my individual performance and run to the final," she added.

In the opening game against Australia at Sydney Showground, Poonam came within a whisker of the third hat-trick in Women's T20 World Cup history, dismissing Rachael Haynes and Ellyse Perry before Jess Jonassen was dropped.

The final of the tournament will be played at Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) on March 8 -- International Women's Day.

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